I did it!

Okay, I survived the half marathon!

Actually, I did even more than survive. I accidentally stumbled (no pun intended) upon a very useful strategy: run in a little pack comprised of me and two younger guys who are more experienced runners. They, and a most excellent iPod playlist (starting song: "Turkish Song of the Damned" from the Pogues), dragged me through at a pace I've never run before.

My time for the half was 1:46:26.9, which was a pace of 8:07 and a very respectable finishing place of 183rd. The total race field was about 2500, though only somewhere between 1600 and 1700 actually finished the half marathon. The balance either were only in it for the 12K or dropped out. My goal was to hit 2 hours, and until we started I wasn't really sure I'd make that. Yay for pushy running partners Matt (center, a.k.a. my obnoxiously fit lab henchman, who runs full marathons) and Craig (left, who had the rockin' watch/gps device that calculated our distance and pace as we went along; it became an important ritual for Craig to intone our pace at each mile marker).

The Team Challenge fundraising was a great success. 509 runners and walkers in the field were CCFA runners, and all told we raised over $2 million for the charity. Whee!